Kerven

CS, Candlewic, RE, TFC, TCS (they even have a 12 cavity mold), Cierra, C&S, Lonestar... Are you looking for the type with removable lid? American Candle Supplies has those.

I forgot to add something. I know this is "the community for all things scented" but what about other crafts? I'd like to learn about pottery and general throwing (is that the right term?). Perfect time of the year to learn how to make garden ollas...

Soaping: HP, CP, master batching lye solutions, HP liquid soap bases, etc. Suggesting this because I was recently bit by the soaping bug and got a couple books about it but have yet to take the dive and get supplies. Still anxious about working indoors with lye, but HP looks interesting. Technical stuffs. What is syneresis? What are fisheyes? What products can be made in gel form and what are the differences between the more common gellants? What plastic to use for product packaging? Dimethicone/silicone-free hair products. Pomade and forming creams, in particular. The process of having a fragrance duped. What is a "code"?

Keep in the mind that the BA sanitizers have an alcohol content of 62%, which leaves a narrow range of 0-3% for additional components without going below the minimum alcohol content of 60%. IDK if there could be any legal issues with freebie sanitizers. I know that retail sanitizers have to go through thorough testing and federal approval before receiving the go-ahead. Whether or not that applies to nonretail... IDK. Some of our local distilleries are using their alcohol to make sanitizers, which I'm 100% certain haven't been lab tested or gov. approved given the short period between start of the pandemic and their production of sanitizers, to give away and so far there hasn't been any mention of FDA or CDC crackdown or warnings on them... although both have become a bit irritated with crafters and novices making their own sanitizers.

Lotioncrafter's Polymulse, MakingCosmetic's GelMaker Powder, and New Directions has Ultrez 20. Those are sold out. MakeYourOwn has carbopol 940, which is sold out as well, and IDK if it would be useful in making a hand sanitizer. No ETA's, AFAIK.

Noticed that Lotioncrafter put up an announcement saying that sodium carbomer will not gel 70% isopropyl but HPMC will. Ordered the HPMC. Will save the carbomer for summer aloe gel or use it with the ethyl rubbing alcohol. Wondering if Polymulse requires neutralizing; have read conflicting information. Worse case, ditch the gel and go with a spray. Interestingly, some commercial sanitizers list carbomer but no pH modifiers or buffers. What sort of carbomer could they be using? Midwest Bottles has a lot of bottle sets that would work. Trying to decide which to go with - NG or Midwest. I guess it'll come down to shipping speed/cost. Was thinking of subbing aloe for a diluted hydrosol. Not going to do EO's but will try skin-safe fragrances at .5-1% since they'll give me a reason to use up a few samplers. Sanitizers are supposed to stay wet on the skin for 1min? Uh... No commercial sanitizer I've used has ever lasted more than 10-20sec unless I used a giant glob of it, which usually glides off and makes a mess.

Anyone know where I can get travel size (2-4oz) bottles, sprayers, and disc or flip caps individually? I've had my eye on BA, since I can get CP/HP and other supplies, but almost all of their closures are sold out. SKS has plenty in stock but their package counts are more than I need, considering I need a mix of closures. Patiently waiting for sodium carbomer to arrive. Got an order through just in time. Now, all sodium carbomer is sold out. Supplies are selling out fast. The 2 day processing delay is now 3-4. I guess either people are stocking up since they're going to be cooped up indoors or they're catching on and making necessities from scratch due to shortages.

Have you considered bloggers and vloggers?

Did the water land on the tops or did surface droplets develop while sheltered and dry? Was there a sharp change in temperature (a front moving in, maybe)?

Unfortunately, here in VA, ABC requires an industrial, commercial, culinary, or medicinal use permit for grain alcohols as strong as Everclear. Going to have to go the isopropyl route... for now. It's sold out -everywhere-, but I have a few bottles stashed away for first aid. Even alcohol prep pads are starting to sell out. This is becoming ridiculous.

I've seen aloe gels at drug stores. You confirmed my suspicion that they'd turn watery if diluted with alcohol. I think I'll order some of the sodium carbomer to give that a try and to have on hand before it's sold it. The AloeThix is already sold out. The demand is real! Some stores have removed big brand hand sanitizers from their sites and others are limiting order quantities. Sprayable sanitizer idea was inspired by the The Honest Co. hand sanitizers. Their base formula seems to be alcohol, aloe juice, calendula and chamomile extracts, glycerin, and water. The others are scented with natural ingredients. That'll give me an excuse to try the overpriced WSP EO-based FO's. Might even try to make a Thieves Oil blend. My only issue with the spray sanitizer is that it seemed to evaporate before it could be rubbed over the skin. I wonder if a little PG might help with that. Going to grab some baby wipes and try that too. Hopefully, those don't sell out. I just realized that I need to find a source of ethyl alcohol with high enough ABV. High proof grain alcohol isn't going to work. Need a permit to purchase that here. Denatured alcohol? Isopropyl?

@TallTayl Do you use aloe as well? I'm wondering if the stuff at the grocery store will work (Fruit of the Earth Aloe Juice - Kroger has an awesome price for 128floz) even though it has citric acid in it. Would the citric acid interfere with the neutralized carbomer? The pure aloe juice from Making Cosmetics does mention that it could lower the pH and require balancing with TEA. I'd like to avoid messing around with TEA and aminomethyl propanol... if I can. Trying to cut down on shipping costs by using locally acquired ingredients, especially for heavy ingredients like aloe juice and ethyl alcohol. I can't work up the nerve to order a premade base as I'd be paying (including shipping costs) for something that's primarily alcohol and water, which I can get from several places within a mile or two. Maybe 100x aloe powder? It appears to have maltodextrin in it and I'm concerned about that. Would the alcohol be enough of a preservative to keep things from feeding/growing off the maltodextrin? 200x doesn't contain it but is more costly and requires more precise measuring. I guess I could do without the aloe and go with straight water. Or a sprayable liquid formulation rather than gelled; wouldn't need carbomer so the pH would be less of an issue.

Wow... didn't know Newell Brands owned Chesapeake Bay Candle as well. That's a little concerning.

What is that? Guinness record for largest carbon ball?

Off the top of my head (might be wrong), Calwax has: EC26 - soy/coconut CCP1 - coconut/paraffin Ceda Serica - coconut/apricot (with some paraffin)

I was reading earlier that contracting the virus is going to be more likely through contact than through air (was reading about the effectiveness of the N95 masks and why they're not the silver bullets many people believe), which got me thinking about sanitizers and soaps. It's being said that washing hands is going to be the best deterrent and hand sanitizing less effective but still good if washing isn't an option. Good thing I'm a borderline compulsive hand washer. Can't say the same about the rest of the household. The sanitizers I looked at ranged from 62% to 70%. I'm wondering if a mixture of alcohol, aloe juice, glycerin, and water would work. It would significantly cut costs and should be thin enough to spray. Hmm! A travel size multi-use, skin-safe sanitizing spray... disinfect your hands, disinfect the tabletop at a restaurant... Out of curiosity, are sanitizers regulated as drugs and require the whole independent testing and submittal of results for FDA approval? I use peroxide everywhere too (peroxide + Dawn works great on stains!). Sometimes I'll break out the vinegar (vinegar + Dawn works great on soap scum and grease!). Rarely the bleach (not a fan). Lysol wipes are a staple.

With all the coronavirus fuss, I've found myself increasingly interested in soaps and sanitizers. If things get too bad, I imagine I'm not going to be leaving the house without a travel size of both liquid hand soap and sanitizer. So, what better way to go about that than to make my own. Does anyone have any formulas or suggestions? I'm thinking AloeThix from LotionCrafter, which would cover the gel structure. Then, at least 60% ethyl alcohol, a little isopropyl myristate as an emollient, some glycerin as a humectant, maybe some isopropyl alcohol if using fragrance oil or essential oil (to emulsify?), a preservative (tocopherol seems to be the go-to), and distilled water to fill in the rest. I'm tempted to go a different route and look at cellulose gels but... IDK. Sepinov EMT 10 at LotionCrafter looks interesting. Don't want to go overboard on fancy emollients, humectants, moisturizers, etc. as they'd probably defeat the purpose.

I didn't realize the manual lighting of candles was so inconvenient... What happens if it glitches and the heating element doesn't shut off or randomly turns on? I hope it's not hot enough to ignite the melt pool. The heating element's leads appear to be encased in glass, which seems safe, but I wonder if it moves down with the wick and, if so, how. I didn't see any partially consumed candles in the video so it was hard to get an idea of how it works and its long term performance. Will carbon/soot build up on the heating element during burning and cause problems when relighting? Could prolonged exposure to the flame cause the element to break and short? Does the device and/or app know when the wick has been lit in order to turn off the heating element or does it stay on? If it has a preprogrammed duration, is there possibility of misfires, where the wick fails to light and the process must be repeated? Edit: About wick trimming... Do wicks require trimming? If so, and the heating element moves with the wick so that it can be used for relighting via the app, how is the wick trimmed without potentially damaging the heating element? If the candle has cooled before trimming, rendering the moving heating element immobile, and the wick is trimmed too short, how will the candle light itself with a larger distance between the element and the wick?

https://www.beneficialbotanicals.com/comedogenic-rating/ https://www.holistichealthherbalist.com/complete-list-of-comedogenic-oils/ https://www.platinumskincare.com/comedogenic-ratings/ This list includes irritancy ratings as well. I have soapnuts.com and theclassyanarchist.com in my notes but both sites appear to be down. One of them, soapnuts maybe, listed absorption ratings as well.

Looks like mottling or "fingernailing" to me. It's been discussed several times. Here Here And here And several more threads. (I think fingernailing is the term to use... It seems to have two meanings, as far as I can tell.) I had to zoom in a lot on the picture to get an idea of what was going on. Maybe it's me, but candles of the same color seem to have the same or very near degree of imperfections. First impression was that it's either the dye or fragrance, although if batches are melted separately and poured at different times something amiss (measuring mistakes, pouring too hot/cold, different cooling rates, etc.) in that process may be at fault as well. I'm inclined to say it's the fragrance (Isn't it always?). Working with vegetable waxes I know all too well how much a single fragrance's performance can differ from another. Some of the additives mentioned in the threads: petrolatum, vybar, stearic, and universal additive. I don't work with paraffin, but it appears that 2% vybar may be too much. I would start at .5% additive and increase in .5% increments as needed. Although the wax may be listed as taking up to 12% fragrance, 10% fragrance may be a bit much. Many waxes are labeled as being able to take high percentages, however, what isn't stated on the label is how the wax performs at those percentages. In addition, the fragrance itself and its quantity can also influence the amount of vybar required and how the vybar behaves. Unfortunately, this means testing each fragrance and tailoring additive load for that fragrance.

I didn't know LCS did international shipping. Are their shipping rates outrageous? Some of those containers are awfully tempting.

Slow cool can help prevent/lessen some issues with soy, IME. I made the mistake two years ago of leaving freshly poured (1 day old) 464 candles in a vehicle (not freezing but in the 40-50's) while at a holiday gathering and they promptly weeped. That was with 6% FO and a little stearic in the blend. I suspect that even with the box your candles got too cold and the soy contracted too rapidly, causing the FO and any non-solid fractions from the coco83 to migrate to the surface. With my candles, I wiped the surfaces and continued to dab the surface of any droplets that formed later. Once they came back to room temp for a day or two the seepage stopped. Plus side: they performed fairly well considering what they went through. Negative side: the top surface developed severe frosting over time and some had hairline cracks.

If it's the MST additive, here's a video showing its consistency: Link Stated in the comments: "It's a Vaseline based additive". So much for being petroleum-free.

The blue candle looks good. That pattern resembles frost or slushy water - I like it. Nice, bright flame. The gelatinous, translucent appearance of the yellow looks a lot like a co92-stearic-cetearyl blend I was tinkering with. With more adjusting and maybe an additive (Crisco?), I think that one has potential to become a good non-mottled candle with a sloping melt pool. Flames look good and stable. As far as the wet spots, maybe Crisco or petrolatum/petroleum jelly? I've read that 6-8% mineral oil combined with FO will help adhesion, although it wasn't clear what ratio of oil to FO to use. Too much mineral oil and/or petrolatum can cause sooting; petrolatum in particular, since it's less refined and more oily.

If wet spots are a problem, petrolatum might be of use. Mineral oil can help with mottling and softening. There's an archived thread that discusses the use of Crisco and Vybar in 2281 somewhere around here... Found it. Coconut-1 is supposedly 100% hydrogenated coconut oil, whereas Coconut-2 contains 2% hydrogenated soy. S-113, S-130, and S-155 are base/naked soys, AFAIK.